floatie wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:56 pm
I'm joining a NYC firm that will be starting remotely in October, and I'm concerned about making sure I have a sufficient workflow given that I won't be able to reach out to anyone in person (my firm has an unassigned first year). We do have a workflow coordinator who reaches out when someone is looking for an extra associate, but a lot of people go outside of that process to look for work. Several of the partners and associates I worked with over the summer have since left the firm. Any advice on best ways to reach out to find out what's going on in the office, and best ways to get staffed? Thanks.
Is this based on your experience as a summer, or what you saw or heard from actual associates? If the former, I wouldn't view that as representative - being a summer associate doesn't have much in common with being a "real" associate. I worked on at least 15 different matters when I was a summer, and then when I started at a firm I worked on 2-3 for the entire first year. I also didn't work with any of the same people when I came back.
If this really is the associate experience and not just a summer thing, then I agree with the prior reply - if you have free time, politely reach out to the staffing coordinator. Frame it like you're trying to be helpful in keeping them updated, not that you're worried or demanding they find you work. I don't think it's going to be a big issue, though - if you're starting in October, they have work.
1. How much of a "reset" is starting as an associate?
I can count on one hand the number of summers who were bad enough that I remembered it when they came back, and not only were they *really* bad (not just normal summer associate bad), I only mentioned it to other associates when they were like, "have you ever worked with [summer associate]?! He's terrible." It's fairly uncommon for people to go out of their way to screw you over.
Also, everyone makes mistakes. Literally all the time people at law firms are making mistakes. Junior associates, senior associates, partners, etc. Senior people are better at explaining their mistakes away, and it's definitely more stressful to make a mistake as a junior who hasn't "proven" himself or herself to be competent, but perfection is completely unattainable. The hours are too long, the work is too detailed, and people are human. Also, no matter how poorly people react when something goes wrong, the reality is that the vast majority of mistakes can be fixed in one way or another. As someone said, as long as it's clear that you're working hard and doing your best, the vast majority of people will not hold any mistakes against you. (Some people are just insane, but you'll inevitably make those people mad even if you don't screw something up, so you can't worry about them too much.
2. What should be the pace for asking for work?
Do you have an assignment system? If so, I would wait to feel that out before asking for work - they may be good about keeping you busy, in which case asking for work will leave you overloaded. If you go a couple of days with little to no work, or you have reason to think that you're about to have no work, then I would ask one or two people (or the staffing person - I would start there if you have one so you don't look like you're trying to circumvent the system), but don't ask more than one or two at once. It's better to be without work when you're first starting than to piss people off by not being able to meet deadlines because you took on too much. It's also not unusual for new associates to have *materially* less work than the hours that people talk about on here.
Also, this may be more of a litigation thing, but you should err on the side of offering to do more on your current matters before asking for a new one. Joining a new matter when your current team is drowning is generally not a good look.
3. Are there any general tips with regard remote starts? What behaviors have TLS associates found to be annoying or helpful in their colleagues so far with regard to remote work?
My biggest tip on remote work is to keep people in the loop on your status on things (even if your status is that it's taking you a really long time to do something). New associates often don't do this enough because they're worried about being annoying, but I'd rather have too many updates than to be left wondering if someone is just baking bread at their apartment or doesn't understand that it's generally not a thing to just stop working on something urgent because it's 5:30.
I try to frame this as asking a follow-up question, like, "hey [senior associate], I'm working through [project] and was hoping you might have a few minutes for a couple of questions that have come up..." This lets them know that you're still working on it but also makes it seem like you have an actual reason for emailing them (and, if you're lucky, will lead to them conveying that it's not actually that urgent). Just don't send questions one at a time - wait until you have a few.
You can also just explicitly say something about how you just wanted to check in on [project] since you imagine it's harder to get a sense of work status when you're all remote - tell them you think you'll be able to wrap it up by [date/time] and just wanted to be sure that timing is okay on their end (or whatever). In general, anything you can frame as intended for the other person's benefit is a positive.
Otherwise, I would just try to be friendly and to take every opportunity that you get to do team Zooms, class year Zooms, etc. I personally hate this stuff, but it's good to do in the beginning. I think it's also good to politely express interest in getting to know and work with more senior people (e.g., if a partner says "oh, I'll have to loop you in on one of these matters at some point," you can tell them that sounds great and you'd love to jump in any time, etc.), but I wouldn't be pushy about setting up "networking" discussions (as new associates sometimes are) - although it's reasonable that you would want to get to know the senior people at your firm, it just comes off like you don't get how busy they are/generally don't understand life.